Sony Breaks its Silence on Censoring Sexual-Content

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018

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Just yesterday, an Akiba Souken interview with Senran Kagura Producer Kenichiro Takaki brought to light some troubling details about his team’s delay in releasing Senran Kagura 7EVEN. To start, when asked about the “white light” being used to censor certain images, Takaki remarked that for anime especially, there exists a concern that children will see this imagery. He added though that there are still fans interested in this content and that he and his team are still interested in finding ways to create it. In regards to the other problems surrounding the release, Takaki had the following to say:

“Recently, regulations on sexual depictions have become increasingly strict worldwide. For such aspects, we have to make things in a way that they won’t be misunderstood. Due to that, we’re facing difficulties which we hadn’t in the past.

I believe it’ll take some time. We have to think in a broad way about how to somehow make it happen.”

Perhaps the hands of fate have taken an interest in this matter as well, as just today Sony officially broke its prolonged silence surrounding these policies. During a recent fan event in Japan, President of SIE Japan/Asia Atsushi Morita was questioned about Sony’s new sexual-content policies which now extend to all regions. More specifically, Morita was asked about Sony’s handling of freedom of expression for games affected by these policies. A translation from Niche Gamer reveals the following:

“About the censorship, we tried to meet global standards,” Morita said. “Regarding the balance of the freedom of expression and safety for children, it’s a tough problem to deal with.”

Even with these new revelations, it’s a bit disheartening to see Sony say as much when the only games that seem to be taking a hit are those developed within Sony’s home country of Japan. So far, we’ve not seen signs of western releases hit by this censorship. To contrast that, in just over a month’s time, we’ve seen the cancellation of Omega Labyrinth Z in the west, the removal of the “Intimacy Mode” in Senran Kagura Burst Re.Newal, and now news about continued roadblocks for Senran Kagura 7EVEN. Only time will tell how far Sony’s reach will extend with these policies, but at least an explanation of some kind has been given.

Please let us know how this information sits with you by leaving a comment below. If you’d like to catch up on what these policies are all about, check out the article we posted back in late October.

A mainframe software developer from the Midwest, Nick found oprainfall while searching for information about Xenoblade Chronicles. Nick collects games across a myriad of different platforms (old and new). He's also passionate about old-school anime spanning from the early 80s through the late 90s.